There’s really only one cake I had somewhat regularly in my childhood that I really would have liked to revisit; a spice cake with fig filling and a 7-minute frosting. I have no idea if there’s a name for it, or if it’s really common in other areas I’m just not familiar with.

Naturally, I don’t have any access to the recipes used or the previous baker, so I had to rely on my own childhood impressions and the recipes that seemed to match those.

I don’t know why, but I was kind of surprised by how sticky a process it was to cut the dried figs – should have guessed that

The day before I planned to spend baking and assembling, I cut up some figs and set them to soak in some hot water. They stayed like that overnight.

I did, in the end, heat them up with a white wash of corn starch just to get a thicker consistency.

The 7 Minute Frosting was a struggle – my first time trying it. I just didn’t manage to get all the sugar to absorb (maybe I wasn’t working over a hot enough water bath?). It was tasty, still, and I was lucky to have friends who took the generous view that the granularity married with the marshmallow-y meringue taste to give it a decidedly Peeps-like mouthfeel.

Apart from that, I was really happy with the flavor combination and I’m looking forward to my next chance to make this cake, though I might have to come up with a name by then!

I *think* the frosting was spiky in my childhood, but I wasn’t feeling it this time.